Delivered by #The_Scholar_Sayyed_Ali_Fadlallah a guidance address before the council of directors of #Al_Mabarrat_Association held at the Lady Khadija Al-Kubra Charity on the Airport Road, in which he said among other things:
We praise God Almighty for granting us the opportunity to be among the institutions that are advanced in serving people and in taking care to assess the institution's course of work, to hold ourselves to account, to avoid falling short and to review policies and procedures so as to make them better and suited to our aspirations toward building an institution that seeks the highest in achieving educational, social and humanitarian aims.
He added: Today we are in a difficult stage that we all face. This stage is reflected in each one of us - whether as pain, or fear, or anxiety about the future - given the presence of the brutal Zionist enemy squatting on our land, committing massacres that have gone beyond all human values, and supported by this world that has covered for this enemy and left it free in all its crimes. Until now we are still living these negative feelings, and so caution and hope are both required at the same time.
He continued: This is the challenge we face at the level of the present and the future, and to meet it we need hope, optimism and a firm belief in the possibility of overcoming these crises through the faith, the means and the self-confidence we possess, which stand between us and falling into the trap of weakness and fear. Hence there is a pressing need to study the points of strength and weakness and to begin planning and organizing our work, taking into account the new circumstances, benefiting from experience and resting on facts and knowledge in order to face the difficult conditions and the coming challenges. By God's leave we are able to get through this stage and to possess the motivation to carry on this journey - especially our educational journey - with an eager spirit and high morale. Hence we want all the staff and students to be armed with firm faith and a deep conviction in the ability to overcome all these crises and wounds.
He said: We must carry on our journey at the level of our performance in teaching, our educational performance, our care and health performance, at the level of people with disabilities and the elderly, and in every field in which we work, so as to remain at the same level of development and beyond.
He added: Our institutions were present in the most difficult circumstances, and so I thank every effort that was made. We know well about those who were in positions of social service supporting people's steadfastness, and about those who were fulfilling their educational mission at the teaching sites at a time when destruction was spreading across the homeland. This effort, accomplished in these circumstances, is a source of pride and appreciation, and expresses the high spirit you possess.
He went on: At this stage we must be careful of the image that has distinguished our institutions. Al-Mabarrat Association has been and remains a byword for openness - an institution with its Islamic principles and values which it does not give up, yet which always extends a hand of communication to others in any area. It is careful about this communication and careful to spread the spirit of dialogue and warmth that we need in this homeland, setting out from the message of the Sayyed (RA), which he carried and in which he was a pioneer and distinguished. And we most certainly carry this message.
He continued: Despite the pain one of you may bear from a statement by this person or a harsh word from that one, and perhaps from positions that touch us as a community and as a denomination, we bear that without complication and with no negative reactions - because we know the sensitivities that exist in this homeland, or the backgrounds of some people, or the ignorance of others about the truth of what is happening and their falling captive to sectarian and denominational incitement, or to some media that cast doubt on the patriotism of this community or that denomination. Yet the facts and experience have proved that those whose loyalty is doubted are among those most eager to make sacrifices to protect this homeland's land, and among those who hold fast to it and remain in it despite all this destruction.
He affirmed that we live in a diverse homeland whether we like it or not, and we have no choice but to live together. Our constant initiative to strengthen coexistence toward others is not a point of weakness but a point of strength in us - that we take the initiative to extend a bridge of communication to the other and work to unite the ranks rather than divide them. We have never been among those who call for isolation and separation from the homeland; rather we will remain rooted in this land with the rootedness of the oak and the cedar. We will not withdraw our extended hand even if others withdraw theirs, and we will remain insistent on building the state of the human being and of justice, the state of law, the state of freedom and independence, able to protect human values and to safeguard the land, honour and wealth.
He pointed out that on the occasion of the birth of Christ (PBUH) we must live his spirit of openness, of building bridges, of communication, of love and of tolerance. This is the spirit we must carry and deepen in every area in which we are present. We must be careful about this communication, for we are not closed institutions but open ones; we always seek meeting and cooperation with educational and social institutions, and we never cease constantly seeking to find mechanisms of communication and to pursue them.
He explained that openness and engagement, for us, enrich the institution's work and its development just as they enrich other institutions. As for the directors and staff, they have a great role in their institution: to be careful of its course and its development, and to carry a mission-driven role in the society in which they are present, calling to all the values of faith and humanity so that the homeland may be as every person who believes in the heavenly religions aspires for it to be, and who seeks to build a homeland that provides its people with a dignified life in the shade of this diversity - which we want to be a source of richness for this country. And it will not be so except through sincere intentions, transparent human dialogue, and the will and determination to dispel the anxieties each of us lives with, or at least to understand the sources of the worry and concerns the other carries. This is a message we affirm: that Al-Mabarrat Association is not a framework set against other frameworks and will not be, for we are people of addition, not of subtraction and division, as the Sayyed used to say. So I affirm that we are not set against anyone in this arena. We bring together, and when someone seeks to divide we try to be the firefighter, stopping the bleeding or the fires that might be kindled as a result.
